???Please help…I have the free version of avast, and ever since this latest update to 4.7 i can no longer access protected sites…ie my bank or car payment sites…i have tried to contact support@avast to no avail i have not gotten anyanswers,this never used to happen until after this latest update and now i am confused as to what to do, also i dont have anything but avast scanning my email so that shouldnt be an issue…and i dont have a firewall either…since support wont answer me i thought i would try this route…thanks
You are absolutely mad to use on-line banking without a firewall, sorry I had to say that before anything else.
Any malware that manages to get past your defences will have free reign to connect to the internet to either download more of the same, pass your personal data (user names, passwords, keylogger retrieved data, etc.) or open a backdoor to your computer, so outbound protection is essential.
What is you operating system ?
What is your browser ?
avast doesn’t monitor protected sites, e.g. https (the ‘s’ stands for secure encrypted protocol, traffic) so avast can’t monitor it and certainly shouldn’t block them.
Have you recently add any other security software ?
have you recently visited the windows update site and updated the OS ?
I am not sure what all you said means! updated the OS? sorry i am not that computer literate…when i called my ISP they told me this problem was because of my virus protection and that i should call them…
My operating system is XP
My browser is Yahoo
and no i havent added any other security features as of late!
Usually Microsoft releases updates for their OS which contain very important fixes or stability improvements or…(other things)
So its very important for you at least one time a month to update your OS
OS = Operating System, so you have XP.
It took some finding, I didn’t think Yahoo had a browser, now that I know it has a custom browser, I’m not sure if this would be in the approved list of browsers supported by avast and unfortunately I have no way of finding that out easily.
Double click the avast icon, and select the Web Shield Icon, now look at the Last Scanned: and Scanned Count: fields and is there anything in them ?
If not avast’s web shield isn’t scanning your browser traffic, you could also check if the avast icon rotates when you are browsing, if not that is another indication it isn’t scanning your browser traffic.
Can you give any examples of the full URL of the websites you have tried to access, but can’t, e.g. https://www.example_site.com
If you pause the Web Shield provider can you access these sites ?
I think your ISP is fobbing you off with a stock answer, how they could know this was an anti-virus, firewall or other issue without investigating is beyond me.
Just so you’ll know, David, SBC/ATT Yahoo rep explained to me just this week Yahoo’s browser (which I also use) runs “on top” of Internet Explorer with some modified code, but IE is “doing the driving”. I have no interaction problems between it and Avast Home. Hope this info helps.
David,
I followed your instructions and yes there is a count number when i pull up the avast web shield…an example of the sites i have tried to get into would be www.usbank.com which happens to be my bank, and anything that is a secure site.
I just got a new modem this afternoon so i am hoping this helps but if it doesnt i would appreciate anything you can do for me! thanks
Well I can access the link you gave, that however, isn’t a secure page, then I assume you login and it then takes you to an https web page now this may be were some security/privacy settings might get involved messing with the connection to the https page.
Do you have cookies enabled in your browser as they are probably required to gain access ?
Check your security settings in your browser and IE.
Have you tried this with a different browser, using IE directly rather than yahoo browser. I would also suggest you try firefox as it I (along with many others) feel it is more secure than IE, www.getfirefox.com.
Did you try pausing web shield and connect to your bank as I suggested ?
Try this direct connection to this firefox extension page. If it works then the problem is in moving from a normal http page to an https web page whilst passing parameters. This we have seen before with Zone Alarm Pro firewall and that was because of the privacy function, so if there happens to be any privacy function within yahoo browser it may have a similar effect.
I’m sorry I know zero about the yahoo browser and neither will many others on the forum. The same is not true with the mainstream browsers, IE, Maxthon, Firefox, etc. so if you were experiencing any problem in that regard someone on the forums is likely to have the experience of the browser to help more.
ok so what if i were to download FIREFOX since you say you know that better? can you then tell me how to check on the cookies to make sure they are enabled?
They would be enabled by default in firefox, but from the Menu at the top of the browser Window, Tools, Options, Privacy, see image for my cookie settings.
ok David-what next? i downloaded firefox and tried to get into that site i told you about after signing in and this is what i got! i dont know what else to do!
The connection was interrupted
The connection to www4.usbank.com was interrupted while the page was loading.
* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.
* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
If you literally typed the URL you gave and tried to connect you would have problems, I did too access denied, see image.
However, if you went to the www.usbank.com logged in and were redirected to www4.usbank.com after login and that failed with connection interrupted, I’m at a loss as to why the connection was interrupted.
Try as Tech suggests and I did previously with your other browser, pause or terminate web shield and try it again.
Can you confirm that you paused or terminated the web shield and it didn’t work, that way you can confirm that you anti-virus didn’t have any interaction that could effect it. So you can refute the ISP saying it is your anti-virus is at fault.
